The midterm will cover the material of Modules 1 to 6 (from Introduction to -- and including -- TCP). If you are behind -- you have not followed all the lectures or solved all the problem sets -- there's no reason to panic, but now is a good moment to start preparing. Keep in mind that the midterm will count toward your final grade only if you do well in it.

Here is a possible priority list for organizing your preparation:

  1. If you did not follow lecture 1 and lecture 2 at all, watch the corresponding pre-recorded lectures now.
    If you followed them, then go straight to step 2.
  2. If you did not follow lecture 3 and lecture 4, watch the corresponding pre-recorded lectures now. If you did, then review them (= go through the slides, flag the ones whose content you don't remember clearly, and watch the corresponding videos).
  3. Do the "DNS and HTTP messages" and "Adding a security twist" problems from Exercise Session 4 (pages 5-8). The midterm always has a problem where some end-systems exchange DNS and HTTP messages, and you are asked to list some of these messages, state what their role is, etc. This problem is typically not hard, you just need to have a super-clear picture of basic DNS and HTTP, as they were described in the lectures.
  4. Do:
    midterm 2020, Problem 2, Question 1;
    midterm 2019, Problem 2, Question 1.
  5. If you did not follow lecture 5, watch the corresponding pre-recorded lectures now. If you did, then review it.
  6. Do Exercise Session 5 and:
    midterm 2020, Problem 2, Question 2; 
    midterm 2019, Problem 2, Question 2; Problem 3.
  7. If you did not follow lecture 6, watch the corresponding pre-recorded lecture now. If you did, then review it.
  8. Do Exercise Session 6 [coming up soon] and:
    midterm 2020, Problem 3;
    final 2019, Problem 4, Question 1.
  9. Review lecture 1 and lecture 2.
  10. Do the pen-and-paper (not lab) problems from Exercise Session 2. The midterm always has a problem where you are given a communication scenario and you are asked to compute the delays experienced by various packets. One part of this problem is typically on the easy side, i.e., it requires you to correctly apply formulas from Exercise Session 2. Another part of this problem is typically harder, i.e., it requires you apply the principles from Exercise Session 2, but the formulas are different. 
  11. Do:
    midterm 2020, Problem 2, Questions 3 to 6;
    midterm 2019, Problem 4, Questions 1 to 3.
  12. Do problem 1 (multiple choice) from each of the past midterm exams. This will help you bring all the material together.
  13. Do the problems/questions marked as "lab related" from the past midterm exams.
  14. Do midterm 2021 and midterm 2022 start to finish.
  15. Do what's left of the past midterm exams.

If you complete all these steps without looking at the solutions, you are perfectly prepared. If you don't have the time to do everything, do as many steps as you can, starting from the top. 

We hope this help a bit. Comments and questions always welcome.

Last modified: Wednesday, 8 November 2023, 23:22